


Episode 5: Las Vegas, Nevada

by DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered



Series: The Canyon's Arms Are All We Know [5]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 20:35:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18902176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered/pseuds/DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered
Summary: Alex discovers that there are pretty distinct limits to the kind of fun she can have in Vegas.





	Episode 5: Las Vegas, Nevada

Sloan Canyon was rugged terrain, hilly, with terraced rocks in shades of brown and gold.Scraggly grass poked up through the hard dirt and valiantly burst forth between layers of rock here and there.Alex noted some glyphs on some of the rock faces as she made her way up the gravelly path toward where the watchman’s cabin was supposed to be.She stopped for a moment to read a placard placed on a weathered piece of wood, explaining that the glyphs were not traceable to one specific tribe and that in fact, some were dated back to prehistoric eras.

Izari, head of the Yabantu family who lived here, was the watchman for the area of the canyon where most of these petroglyphs could be viewed. The Yabantu’s arrangement with the DEO was a long-standing one, so these check-ins were more routine formality than anything else. They had been on Earth for thousands of years. They were simply here watching over the sacred site of their ancestors who had homesteaded here after crashing, long before humanity had gotten good at much of anything.

Alex stood on the porch of the cabin, looking out at the rough terrain.

“We don’t get many hikers,” Izari was saying. “The terrain is very harsh. We get a few, they like to take photographs and things, to show off to their friends, but it is peaceful.”

Alex nodded.“No vandals I guess?”

He shook his head. He wore sunglasses and a ranger’s cap, which obscured his oddly bright blue eyes and the curious shape of his head, which was a bit more elongated than a human’s.“No, not in a very long time.”

The delicious smells of food cooking wafted out from indoors. The sun was beginning to sink behind the cliffs. 

“You will of course join us for dinner?”

Alex nodded. J’onn had told her this was simply part of the arrangement.

Around the table with him and his two daughters, they dug into several large bowls of vegetable dishes and a fragrant meat stew. Alex didn’t ask what kind of meat. She probably didn’t want to know if she was eating coyote or something.

“Was your journey difficult?” Izari’s wife Denda asked, pouring her a glass of wine.

Alex smiled and sipped it. It was good, a strong red with a note of something smoky. “No. I’m really happy to be out on my bike, actually. The weather’s been great.”

And so they had pleasant discussion over dinner about what sights there were to see and where she intended to stay.

“You are welcome here,” Izari offered.

She half considered it for a moment. Maybe it’d be nicer than continuing on to Vegas tonight, she thought.

“You could bed with our eldest daughter if you’d like,” he went on.

Alex blinked. “Oh, I don’t want to impose,” she said quickly.

Izari chuckled. “No no, I mean in the tradition of hospitality.”

She squinted at him for a moment.

Denda patted her husband’s hand. “Their traditions aren’t like ours.”She turned to Alex. “Ours are very old, and we sometimes forget.”

The daughter, Wani, smiled at Alex invitingly. “I don’t mind,” she assured her. “You’re much prettier than the other agents that have come here.”

Alex suddenly put together that they were inviting her to sleep with their teenage daughter. She took a long drink from her glass of wine while she willed her heartbeat to slow down and leave her ears to go back down into her chest.Then she said carefully, “I don’t want to offend, and I thank you for the hospitality, but I had intended to reach Las Vegas tonight. I have a hotel reservation there.”

Wani looked a little disappointed. But Denda moved the conversation along and stood up, announcing with easy charm, “Then let’s have dessert! And then we can get your documents signed. I don’t want you to be on the road very late.”

Alex internally sighed with relief.Denda brought out a flan.

 

 

*******

 

Alex texted J’onn before getting on her bike. 

_Why the fuck didn’t you tell me they were going to offer to let me sleep with their daughter?_

J’onn texted back: _LOL Did you?_

She huffed. _Come on. Of course not._

The matter of her sexuality was something of a badly kept secret. Obviously, Jimmy knew. And J’onn, given the mind-reading abilities of his people, was probably also aware of it, but he continued to indulge her wish for privacy and not ask about it. The rest of the people in her life? Well, she hadn’t told them. She had just never wanted to have those conversations with her mother and sister.

 _Then calm down,_ he responded. _You’re an agent of the DEO. I had no questions about whether you would behave appropriately._

The highway to Vegas was open and it felt good to roar down it with the desert whipping by. When she rolled into town, she saw it, exactly as she’d seen it in every movie she’d ever watched: an orgy of colors, blinking lights, sparkling glass towers, limousines, people in costumes. Alex wasn’t much of a gambler, but she had wanted to see it. She wanted to have a feel for what it was like to stand on the floor of a casino and picture herself as George Clooney in an Ocean’s movie.

After she settled into her modest room at the Sands, she called home. Eliza answered.

“Hey mom. How’s everything going?”

“Alex,” Eliza chuckled, “you’ve been gone a day. The house isn’t on fire just yet.”

She could hear in the background the music from the climactic scene of Fantastic Mr. Fox. “Kara watching Wes Anderson again?”

“Yes. Lucy’s here with Penny and they’re all watching together.”

“I see.”

She heard Kara now, intoning the words to Mr. Fox’s speech: “Your tractors knocked down my tree.Your posse hunted my family. Your gunmen kidnapped my nephew.Your rat insulted my wife. And you SHOT OFF MY TAIL.”Then she heard Lucy and Penny’s voices chime in: “I’M NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT THAT NECKTIE.”

She smiled. “Sounds like you don’t need me at all.”

“Oh, knock it off.”

Lucy called out in the background. “Hey, Eliza, is that Alex on the phone?”

“Yes.”

“Let me say hi.”

Alex started to protest. “Eliza, wait no, I don’t really-”

But it was too late.Eliza had handed off the phone to Lucy. “Hey, Allie. You in Vegas?”

“Yeah.”

“Everything go alright at Sloan Canyon?”

“Yeah, mostly. Though I would have liked a heads up that Izari was going to offer his daughter for sex.”

Lucy chuckled. “Not your type?”

Alex snorted. “She seems a little young.”

“She’s 374 years old.”

Alex sighed. 

“Look, Allie, I’m not telling you what to do, but … you’re in Vegas … maybe you should, you know… go drink, play some low stakes blackjack, and then get a girl sent up to your room. You know, do the whole Vegas thing.”

“What?” Alex was scandalized.

“I won’t judge you,” Lucy promised.

Alex felt queasy. “OK, I’ll think about it,” she promised. “I gotta go.”

“Okay. Have fun. Tell me about it later. Or don’t. Just enjoy yourself.”

Alex hung up.She showered off, slid into some clean jeans and a tank top, put on a little lipstick, and went down to the casino.

 

 

*******

 

 

Alex realized fairly quickly that she was, in the fiber of her being, not a gambler.Her job and life involved risk enough; the idea of doing it for fun was too foreign. So despite breaking even at the blackjack tables, she decided that the casino floor was not for her.

She got herself a few shots and a beer and went down to the theater to watch a band that had been famous in the 80s doing tunes that she vaguely remembered. It cost too much and the drinks were watered down.

She was back in her room by eleven p.m. Maybe Vegas was a mistake, she thought. There wasn’t much for her here.

Sighing, she pulled a local paper from the nightstand by the bed and started paging through it till she came to the back pages.They were loaded with advertisements for “escort services”.She thought about Lucy’s suggestion. What would it be like to have completely meaningless sex with a stranger?

Maybe tonight was the night to find out.

She called one of the numbers of the service that had the least overtly sexually threatening name. The ad listing said they “entertain men, women and couples” with “no judgment, no questions”.That sounded good, she decided. She picked up her phone and dialed the number.

A woman’s voice answered.“Can I help you?”

“Um. Yes, I’m looking at your ad in the back of the, uh…” She turned the paper over and looked at the masthead.“…the Desert Voice, and I…”She swallowed.“I was wondering what you charged.”

The woman’s voice was friendly, sexy, but businesslike. “Alright, sweetie, now is it just you or is it you and a friend?”

Her hands started to sweat a little. “Just me.”

“And were you looking for a male entertainer or a female entertainer?”

She bit her lip nervously. “Ah, a female?”

“That’s just fine,” the woman said soothingly. “We have lots of girls who will see ladies. Now, we have Simone, she’s a redhead, very feisty, petite, busty, she’s a real firecracker. Then we have Anastasia, she’s 5’9”, tall, athletic, brunette. She’s a little on the serious side, but I’ll be honest honey, you sound nervous. I think she’d be a better choice for you.”

Alex laughed nervously. “Um, so… how much?”

“Two-fifty for the hour, one-seventy-five for the half hour. Would you like to book, or would you like to think about it and call me back?”

Alex cleared her throat.“No, I guess, um, I’ll take the second one for an hour.”She dug through her wallet. She had four hundred in cash, give or take. “Um, is it standard to, um… tip?”

The woman chuckled again. “Honey, if you have a good time, by all means, you should tip.”

She was too embarrassed to ask what a standard tip would be.She wondered if that was the sort of thing you looked up on Google.

“Where are you located?”

“I’m at the Sands. Room 2021.”

“I can have her there in half an hour.”

In the intervening half hour, Alex paced the room and decimated the contents mini bar. She had serious doubts about this idea.She was well-lubricated by the time the girl showed up.

Alex opened the door.She was what the woman on the phone had described.Tall, pretty, slim, in good shape, with dark brown hair and long legs. Her smiles were faint and hesitant. She wore a clingy little black cocktail dress.Alex stood aside and let her in, and motioned for her to sit in the stuffed chair next to the bed.

“Hi,” she said, wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans and offering her hand awkwardly to shake.“I’m Alex.”

Anastasia smiled politely. “Nice to meet you.”

Alex wiped her hands again after the handshake. “Um, do you… would you like anything from the mini-bar? There’s some beers and stuff in there.”

“Sure, thanks. I’ll have a Heineken if they have that.”

Alex got it for her, opened it, and then sat down on the edge of the bed while she drank demurely from the bottle.After a few moments of awkward silence, Alex blurted out. “So, I’m… I’ve never done this before. Are you… have you … seen… women before?”

Anastasia set her beer down on the nightstand. “Sure. All the time. I prefer it, honestly. Women are almost never creepers like men can be.” She tilted her head and looked at Alex, seeming mildly amused. “And you’re awfully cute.”

Alex flushed. “You don’t have to say stuff like that.”

“No, I mean it.”Anastasia got up from her chair, and perched herself next to Alex on the bed. “Here, why don’t you relax and let me take care of you. Have you been with girls before?”

Alex nodded dumbly.

“You just never paid for it.”

Alex shook her head.

“Well, that’s okay.There’s nothing wrong with it. Everyone gets lonely sometimes.”She gave Alex a gentle push, encouraging her to lie down on the bed. Her manicured fingernails undid her belt and started working at her zipper.

Alex felt an inexplicable panic. “Wait.”

Anastasia paused. “You okay?”

 _Everyone gets lonely sometimes._ And that’s all this was. This girl was very attractive, but she was a stranger, and no matter how pretty she was, having a stranger go down on her wasn’t going to fix the loneliness.“I am, but … I think … can you just… lay down next to me? Put your head on my chest? Can we just … talk?”

Anastasia nodded. “Okay, honey. It’s your hour. We can spend it however you want.”

She crawled up the bed and arranged herself next to Alex, resting her head on her Alex’s chest and sliding an arm around her waist.She was a pretty girl, but Alex found it impossible to relax. This had to be the dumbest of Lucy’s dumb, reckless ideas and Alex couldn’t figure out why she’d let herself get talked into it.

“So what’re you doing in Vegas?” the girl asked.

Alex sighed. “I’m sort of on vacation.”

Anastasia made a little approving sound.

“Only I don’t know if Vegas is for me. I only just figured out, I don’t really like gambling.”

Anastasia sighed. “Well, there’s shows and things too. And you went and called yourself a girl. Seems like you’re finding things to do.”

Alex chuckled nervously.“You smell nice,” she commented. Anastasia wore a little too much of whatever fragrance she wore, but it was a nice fragrance. It smelled a little like vanilla. “You smell like a cookie,” she slurred.

Anastasia patted Alex’s thigh. “You’re a little drunk, aren’t you, honey.”

“Yeah,” Alex admitted. “This is scary. I don’t do things like this.” The drinks were catching up with her now, and her eyes were heavy. The room was bobbing like a boat at sea.

Anastasia sat up and wriggled out of her cocktail dress.Alex was aware of Anastasia tugging her pants off, muttering, “You should get more comfortable.” Alex mumbled an objection, but after a few minutes, she was down to her underwear, and Anastasia was curled up against her.

“I think I made a mistake,” Alex said queasily.

“Don’t judge yourself,” Anastasia soothed.

“No, not like that,” Alex answered wearily. “I just… I miss… home.”She struggled to express what she really meant. That she missed feeling at home in someone’s arms. Anastasia was warm and soft and smelled like a cookie, but she wasn’t home.

“What do you do for fun when you’re at home?” Anastasia asked.

Alex shrugged. “I don’t think I know how to have fun. I watch some TV with my sister. I work on my motorcycle. I used to do a radio show on the old HAM radio in the basement.”

Anastasia’s fingers fiddled with the waistband of Alex’s boy shorts. “What kind of show?”

“Oh,” Alex yawned. “You know. I played some music –Emmylou Harris, Patty Larkin, stuff like that– and babbled a lot about love and stuff. I quit that though. I didn’t think anyone was listening.” Her eyes were drooping.

“How come you don’t know how to have fun?” Anastasia asked lightly.

“I guess I just had a lot of responsibility to my family from a really early age and I never got much of a break. I got used to just being ‘on’ all the time.The only girlfriends I ever had, I met through work.I work, and take care of my sister, and work, and help my mom with the house and the garden, and work.”

Anastasia didn’t say anything.

Alex felt numb. This girl was trying to be nice, trying to make her comfortable, but she was thinking more and more that that wasn’t going to be possible. She yawned.

“You’re very cute,” Anastasia said sincerely. “You could probably get a lot of girls if you wanted to. I’d sleep with you even if you weren’t paying me.”

Alex laughed weakly. “You’re so nice. You don’t have to say that stuff.”

Anastasia lifted her head off of Alex’s chest and looked at her sincerely. “I mean it. If I saw you pull up on your motorcycle, I’d totally want to do you.”

Alex wanted to die of embarrassment.She felt her face flush about five shades of red.

“You seem sweet,” she went on, “and kind of lonely. I mean, I still have to charge you and everything, but… let me make you feel nice. You might as well. I’m already here.”Her fingers crept into the waistband of Alex’s underwear. “What do you say?”

Alex felt her body respond automatically to Anastasia’s frontal approach. “I… I don’t know…”

“You must be at least a little horny, or you wouldn’t have called for me,” Anastasia continued.

Alex groaned a little.She was, absolutely.It had been a while since she’d been with Lucy.And Anastasia was a pretty girl who seemed to genuinely want to get acquainted with the general area between Alex’s thighs. 

But it would be empty. She would end up more depressed than if she hadn’t done it at all. She put a hand heavily over Anastasia’s. “I am, but … I don’t think… don’t get me wrong. You’re super pretty. Really pretty. I just … I was never good at sex with strangers, I just don’t think it’s for me.”

Anastasia looked at her fondly. “Alright, sweetie. Whatever you want.”

Alex patted her shoulder to indicate she wanted her to sit up. Then she rolled over and reached into her satchel next to the bed and pulled out a deck of cards. She held it up. “Wanna play?”

Anastasia smiled. “Thought you didn’t like gambling.”

Alex shrugged. “Go Fish doesn’t count as gambling.”

Anastasia laughed. “God, you’re cute.”

So they played Go Fish in their underwear for the remaining half hour, drinking beer and listening to a baseball game on the hotel television. The Diamondbacks were losing, and one or the other of them occasionally hollered something laced with profanity at the screen.At the end of it, Anastasia slipped back into her cocktail dress while Alex fished out the wad of cash in her jeans pocket. “So, the lady on the phone said it was two-fifty?”

Anastasia nodded.

“Okay…” Drunkenly, Alex realized that she never did get around to googling what you were supposed to tip a call girl.She fumbled with the wad for a moment and then just handed the whole thing to her. “Here, just …. Here.You were great. I had a great time. Um, thanks.”

Anastasia stared for a moment at the wad of money, then patted Alex’s shoulder. “I did, too. How long are you in Vegas for?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m leaving tomorrow.” She hadn’t decided that till just now.

“Okay. Well, it was nice meeting you.”

“Yeah.”

Anastasia gave her an awkward hug, and Alex walked her to the door.

The minute it closed, she began to sob quietly. _What the fuck is wrong with me?_

She climbed back into bed, and after she was done crying, she played solitaire until she passed out.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you’re enjoying this, please remember to subscribe to this profile and/or this series. Thanks!


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